By Front Row Reviewers Staff
In Salt Lake City, local playwright Elise C. Hanson has created a take on William Shakespeare unlike any other, and To Wit is brought to life at The Box by the New World Shakespeare Company. The play gathers several survivors of Shakespeare’s plays to discuss their trauma. Hanson has a storied and award-winning career and is known for forward-thinking interpretations of Shakespeare. Hanson masterfully uses language as her weapon, weaving complex clauses in modern English and sometimes even writing in sneaky, subtle iambic pentameter and verse.
Act I sees Horatio (Hamlet), Perdita (A Winter’s Tale), Teufel (Titus Andronicus), Queen Bess (Henry VIII), and Bianca (Othello) united on one stage. Act II converges to another plane, where Horatio now guides some of those who didn’t quite make it (Cleopatra, Romeo, Ophelia, and Lady MacBeth), through their transition. In both acts, a headless body lies on the floor, seemingly without explanation or warrant. Existential quandaries are discussed, griefs are expressed, doughnuts are thrown, and blood and water (from Ophelia’s kiddie pool) splash everywhere.
The most notable thing about this refreshing and remarkable work is the words themselves. Rather than relying on cheap tricks to emulate Shakespeare like using Old English “thou” and “thine” and so forth, the complex, tricky language remains. However, it is attainable, mimicking the Bard’s in an alarmingly robust and lyrical way while offering humor, heart, and pathos that everyone can connect with.
But there’s pizza. Which they eat atop a dead body. Such are the metaphors to be found in this wickedly witty piece.
Each actor plays a couple of roles, and each has a shining moment in the magical little play. Carly Welch is bold and sarcastic as Queen Bess and soft and whimsical as Ophelia (and commits wholeheartedly to her turn in a kiddie pool while dressed in yards of fabric and flowers). Mandi Titcomb is carping and contemptuous as Bianca and powerful as thunder as Lady MacBeth. There is something haunting in the way Bryce Kamryn plays the sorrowful and sober Horatio and then the caustic and salty Hamlet. Vee Vargas plays a gentle Teufel, who comes from the playwright’s imagination as the child of Aaron in Titus Andronicus, and then switches to self-obsessed and goofy Romeo with utter ease. Cami Rozanas’ Perdita is a timid, cherub-voiced kewpie doll who has pain of her own (that whole thing with a bear), but Cleopatra is elegant, sensuous, and imperious. As she delivers a soliloquy as Cleopatra, one almost thinks one is watching an actual Shakespeare play.
Director Catherine Mortimer leads the actors along with a keen ear for complex language and understanding of the script’s biting, brilliant humor. The stage looks imaginative for how simple it is, with a blood-filled mannequin in the center that squelches wonderfully as the actors hit it and a full blow-up kiddie pool adorned with pink unicorns and flowers that elicits laughter just sitting there.
Live sound cues from lighting technician Patrick McAtee lend a lot of fun to the show. There is an abundance of creativity in these types of shows that have no budget and require exceptional brain power, and Mortimerand her cast and crew pull it off with aplomb.
The show is a special one, one full of sweetness and humor and profound feeling. The rhapsodic words wash over audience members as they relate to fun and real characters who are vivid in their portrayal and alluring in their philosophy. Little Shakespeare references here and there will delight fans of the Bard, but one certainly does not have to be overly familiar with his work to appreciate the story and script. This may be one worth repeating every few years or so, and warrants both praise and attention.
New World Shakespeare Company asks that all patrons be masked to attend the show. The actors and creative staff are all vaccinated against COVID-19. This is one of the reasons Front Row Reviewers feels comfortable reviewing the show. NWSC is not just Celebrating the GOOD in the Arts, they are caring about the Arts community’s actual physical health. And we commend this.
New World Shakespeare Company Presents To Wit By Elise C. Hanson.
The Box, 124 S 400 W, Salt Lake City UT, 84101
Aug 19-29, 2021, 7:30 PM, Matinees Sunday 3:00 PM. Tickets: $20. A portion of the proceeds goes to support NAMI Utah
Contact: 801-440-9243
New World Shakespeare Company Facebook page
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